Today the investigation continued into tropic air flight 2110 which crash landed in the sea seconds after take-off Wednesday evening from the Municipal Airstrip. 3 of the 13 passengers who were on the flight are still hospitalized tonight. Meanwhile the body of the wrecked plane was removed from the sea today and taken to a parking lot near Mapp Street for further inspection. This morning's painstaking removal was the first look at the crashed Cessna Caravan and 7NEWS was there.
Keith SwiftReporting,
The work to remove the Cessna Caravan from the sea began at 8 this morning.
Tropic Air officials along with Civil Aviation Department investigators and Regent Insurance inspectors enlisted the help of divers, Fire Department personnel and this heavy duty crane to lift the wrecked aircraft from the sea.
Amado Badillo, Regional Manager - Tropic Air
"What we are trying to do is just retrieve the aircraft from the water and then we will take it to a secure site so the Civil Aviation (Department) can do their thorough investigation on the entire aircraft to see what really caused the accident."
It would be an arduous and delicate task. This amateur video shot by
_Gilda Aguet _shows the crane attempting to hoist the fuselage of the plane out of the sea. That would easier said than done though as the strap almost gave in under the weight of the 4 ton aircraft. A few minutes later, the plane was slowly lifted and carefully placed on shore.
Amado Badillo,
"We had to get a crane first of all to get it on shore and because of the distance it was from the shoreline the crane actually pulled the aircraft initially in the water to a point where it could hoist it completely out of
the water to get it on land."
After it was gently rested onshore, Tropic Air personnel began removing belongings left from the passengers. One of the first items to be removed was a bag belonging to the pilot Gerry Proehl. He was on the scene to claim and inspect it. A number of other passenger bags from the luggage compartment were also removed.
Once that was completed - the next task was to prepare the fuselage for transportation. One of the wings had already snapped off when it was being hoisted from the sea and that placed on a trailer bed. The tail section and the other wing though had to go as well. For help they called in
firefighter Kevin Williams who was armed with a chop saw and the legendary Jaws of Life. It took literally hours of work to remove the tail and the other wing. Tropic Air's regional manager Amado Badillo was on the scene throughout. He says the plane had to be broken up so it could be transported.
Amado Badillo,
"For transportation purposes throughout the city, to the secure area for the investigation to be completed, we had to do exactly what we are doing. We are removing the wings and removing the tail section of the fuselage."
And as dramatic as these images of the wrecked plane are, Badillo says they are misleading. He stressed that what you are seeing is not as a result of the accident. He explained.
Amado Badillo,
"What you are looking at on land is completely different from what we
saw before we pulled it out of the water, before we even started to pull it towards shore. What we saw is completely different. Initially what we saw was the aircraft was relatively intact with the exception of some windows that were broken. The propellor was completely severed off the aircraft and parts of engine cover, as we would call it in our aviation terms, it would be the engine cowling, were missing. But other than that the aircraft was relatively intact. When we looked inside the fuselage we did notice that all the seats were intact."
Keith Swift,
Does that tell you anything?
Amado Badillo,
"Well I am not really into the investigation section or the department, the Civil Aviation would determine that factor. The Chief Engineer who is out here on the site with me actually showed me some corrosion that was actually taking on the engine, the occurrence of corrosion. He stated to me that the longer engine stayed in the water the more it would have affected the engine. So if it had stayed in like a day or two more you would have actually seen holes on the engine block."
The plane leaves the depths of the sea for the hands of investigators. It also leaves this neighborhood which watched the near disaster unfold. One woman who watched the plane go down two days ago and then watched it come out today is Velda Aguet. She saw it all unfold from her verandah right in front of the crash scene.
Velda Aguet, Area Resident
"We always feel like it would go on the rooftop and we are always ready for that. But we have been here for many many years and so far, so good."
Sentiments echoed by all involved in the light of a near - tragedy, whose lessons may lie somewhere in this heaped wreckage.
Amongst the luggage recovered was the gun Police Constable Jose Castellanos was carrying when the plane crashed. A representative from Cessna, the plane's manufacturer, arrived in Belize this afternoon. A preliminary report on the cause of the accident should be available by early next week.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited for the internet by Keith Swift
